A Classic Sunday Roast

Hello Friends,

I would like to share with you a classic British dish that is very simple to make and requires very few ingredients. Today, I made a Roast Chicken Dinner but you could substitute the chicken for another meat and also choose different vegetables.

–Ingredients–
1 whole chicken
6 chipolata sausages
6 slices of streaky bacon
4 maris piper potatoes
2 carrots
1 head of broccoli
a little oil
some gravy granules

The key to a good roast dinner is timing.

My chicken required 1 hour and 40 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade (fan oven) so I rubbed the outside with a little oil and put this in the oven. Other classic meats for a sunday roast are lamb or beef and there are plenty of other options if you prefer, for example roasted butternut squash is great if you do not want meat.

Whilst the chicken is cooking, it is time to prepare the potatoes and pigs in blankets.

Peel the potatoes and carrots and chop into fairly small chunks (not too small) - I think they taste nicer when they're quite small. Part boil them for about 15 minutes and then drain, leave to cool and finally toss them in a little oil.

Then wrap each chipolata in a slice of streaky bacon and place these on a baking tray along with the potatoes and carrots. I like to place the potatoes and carrots around the sausages so that the fat from the sausages and bacon get absorbed into the vegetables. Yummy. You can roast other vegetables if you prefer. These will take 30 to 40 minutes in the same oven as the chicken - I placed mine on the bottom shelf (underneath the chicken) for 40 minutes and turned half way through.

Whilst the oven is busy doing its thing, cut the florets off the broccoli and put in a pan of water. They want to boil for between 5 and 10 minutes depending upon how you like your veg. Other brassicas could go nicely here too like cauliflower. I turn on the pan at the same time as I turn my pigs in blankets (20 minutes to go).

The final thing to do is the gravy. Once the oven starts beeping and you take everything out, pour the broccoli water into a cup (so you get all of the nutrients that were boiled out of the veg) and then add enough gravy granules until it is the consistency you like. We like ours fairly thick whereas others like theirs to be runny like water.

The only thing left to do is dish up and tuck in. Guess which plate is my husband's!

Another great thing is that any leftover chicken and sausages can be mixed with a white sauce to make a casserole which can be served with mashed potatoes the following day. Any left over bacon is used to bacon sandwiches the following morning so not only is this a tasty dish, there is no food waste.

– About Me –
I like the same things as most other people, animals, gardening, cooking, travelling, photography, art, TV, music and films which is probably what I’ll write about most. I talk and swear too much and am always noticing things that I should not be noticing. I am the mother to two beautiful young boys and the wife to a caring husband. I live in London and love the city.

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